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For the Record

Avant-Garde Jazz vs. Classic Rock

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 February 2025

It was somewhere around the fall of 1980. I was 17 years old, and I’d begun to hang around with the Harknesses. We lived in the same neighborhood, attended the same middle school, and shared the same tastes in comic books and music. The Harkness house was a hotbed of culture—the kind of house I’d want my own kid to gravitate toward. Music playing in the living room, a band rehearsing in the basement, art always in progress; I recall concert banners drawn on bedsheets being a hot commodity. It was over-the-top wholesome.

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Mitmat Foundation Premium and the Downside of Streaming

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 December 2024

Streaming is insidious

For years I kept my digital and analog systems completely separate. My big rig in the basement was analog and the smaller system on the main floor was digital only, running off a Squeezebox Touch. The main-floor system saw the most use in our house—it provided the music to our life for Marcia and me. For years she would get up earlier in the morning than I would, and she’d play John Zorn’s Alhambra Love Songs, Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, or The Plateaux of Mirror by Brian Eno and Harold Budd. I’d walk downstairs a half hour later and encounter an accidental renaissance scene. The lights dimmed way down, the gas fireplace casting a warm glow, and Marcia on the couch with the dog, writing in her journal.

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Bury Me with These Analog Accessories

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 October 2024

In the world of analog accessories, there are entire catalogs of stuff you didn’t know you needed. Of course, I know there’s a distinction between want and need. We humans really only need food, water, shelter, and companionship. A turntable is a want. Heck, any form of hi-fi is a want.

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Do What You Love! Setting Up a European Audio Team Turntable

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 August 2024

In my August 1 editorial, I talked about the recent arrivals and departures in my review system. It’s been uncharacteristically variable lately, which has made reviewing a challenge. To make this variability work, I’ve been listening pretty much non-stop, and it’s been hard work. Oh boo-hoo, you might be thinking. Poor Jason—he’s got to listen to music all day. World’s smallest violin, etc.

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A New Arms Race—Jason Gets Gimballed

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 June 2024

My VPI Prime Signature has been in my system for six years now, ever since I reviewed it back in 2018. After I finished the review, I agonized over my next steps. I’d owned a Pro-Ject RPM-series turntable since 2004, starting with the RPM 9, which I bought after I’d finished that review. Then came the RPM 10 in 2007, followed by the RPM 10 Carbon in 2017. Those turntables had made me an honest man three times over, and I really, really enjoyed my time with them.

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Bounce with Counce and Mat Matters

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 April 2024

Curtis Counce, and that album cover!

I’ve always loved You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce! by the Curtis Counce Group. It’s a delightfully easy, loping album, full of smooth, juicy lyricism, almost totally absent of the paid-by-the-note speed-bop that often leaves me feeling cold. But it’s not so laid-back that it’s going in reverse. Rather, it’s a midway blend of West Coast chardonnay and Chicago barrel whiskey. There’s some wonderful soloing going on here—Miles meets Ben Webster without the drug addictions. The arrival of the Craft Recordings reissue of this criminally underappreciated album really sent me down a rabbit hole.

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The Importance of the Phono Cable—Crystal Cable Diamond Series 2 Reference2

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 February 2024

The phono cable is the most critical piece of wire in your audio system. I make this statement with certainty. In North America, power cords carry an alternating current at 120V. Speaker cables may need to carry a few dozen volts. Line-level interconnects throw up to about 2V. But the phono cable? A low-output moving coil squeaks out somewhere around 0.5mV. Spin that number up to a value in volts and you get 0.0005V.

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“Chaomorphic” Dissolves the Ego

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 December 2023

About 35 years ago, via a mutual friend, I became acquainted with Matthew, an aspiring poet and keen dabbler in psychedelic drugs. At that point in my life, I’d basically finished with psychedelics, as the transition from carefree student to aspiring systems programmer had siphoned much of the fun out of that form of recreation.

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Emcee Sick Comes A-Knocking

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 October 2023

Just recently, one of my wife’s family friends stopped by to drop off a book. It was a hot day and JB had been roaming the city by public transit, so Marcia and I invited him in for a coffee and a glass of water. JB was carrying a cloth bag containing some LP-shaped objects. I’m a dog person, so I metaphorically sniffed his butt and asked him what was in the bag.

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“Animals”—Pink Floyd’s Classic Album Deconstructed

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 01 August 2023

Certain albums resonate with me. Often, it’s the setting I associate with these records that entrenches the music in my core memory. The music is important in isolation, of course, but the association with life events cements certain records into the root system.

Read more …

  1. The Return of the Mixtape
  2. A Muddy Waters Classic Gets a Shot of Steroids
  3. Falling Down the Discogs Rabbit Hole
  4. My Vinyl Life: Decaffeinated Soy Mochaccinos and the DS Audio ION-001 Ionizer
  5. It's Field-Trip Time: Corby's Audio and the Kuzma Stabi R
  6. iSonic P4875(II) Ultrasonic Record Cleaning Machine—Cleanliness is Next to . . . Fussiness
  7. The Art of the Box: DS Audio and EMM Labs
  8. The Soundsmith Journey or Waste Not Want Not
  9. Harkness: "The Occasion"
  10. Discovering Vinyl Storage Solutions Record Sleeves

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